It is known in the art to provide garments, including jackets and full body suits, with various forms of ventilation for the garment. One example of such garments provides for sections, patches or panels of air permeable material, for example, a mesh fabric, which may or may not be covered by panelling forming a portion of the garment. Examples of such garments are shown in the patents to York, U.S. Pat. No. 2,114,514, Gilfillan, U.S. Pat. No. 1,360,390, Fishel, U.S. Pat. No. 308,244, Bukspan, U.S. Pat. No. 2,989,754, Ludwikowski, U.S. Pat. No. 3,213,465, Spano, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,395 and Ingram, U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,224. Generally, the garments shown in the just-noted patents provide for entry and exit of ventilating air through ventilation openings either on the front or the back of the garment, and perhaps including also along the side or at the underarm of the garment, without providing for a creation of a ventilation flow through the garment from the front portion of the garment, around the body of the wearer in the interior of the garment, and out through the back of the garment. In addition, the just-noted patents provide for little or no control of the amount of the opening which serves the ventilating purpose thereby failing to control whatever limited amount of ventilation flow through the garment may be created by the ventilation openings in combination with the normal openings in the garment, for example, the neck and front fastening portion of the garment.
Another class of ventilated garments does employ some means of regulating the amount of the ventilation opening through the use of zippers or other fasteners which are selectively positionable to modify the size of the ventilation opening. Such garments are shown, for example, in the patents to Bagnato, U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,168, Di Paola, U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,215, Lepore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,793, Robinsohn, U.S. Pat. No. 2,073,711, Markve, U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,327, Weiner, U.S. Pat. No. 2,715,226. The just-noted patents, however, suffer from the drawback of having ventilation openings only on the front or the rear of the garment, or in the case of the patent of Weiner, on the front of the garment and along the in-seam of the sleeve. These garments also thus fail to provide for a flow path through the garment, even though the ventilation opening is regulated in size.
Another form of ventilated garment provides for a plurality of overlapping flaps which circle the garment, such as shown in the patents to Abrams, U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,356 and Glidden, U.S. Pat. No. 2,259,560. Such garments provide a relatively static form of ventilation, and are particularly unsuited for the purpose for which the garment of the present invention is designed. This is so for two reasons, first, the overlapping panels are not regulated in size, and remain continuously open with respect to the entry of air for ventilation through the openings covered by the overlapping panels. In addition, the overlapping panels on the front portion of the garment when the wearer is in a position such as on a motorcycle, would actually serve to inhibit the entry of air through the front portion of the garment thereby serving to negate airflow through the garment. At the same time, the airflow which does result from the entry of air into the ventilation openings covered by the overlapping panels on the front of the jacket would be unregulated and the back portion of the garment would tend to billow as a result of what airflow there is through the garment.
The patent to Myers, U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,962 shows a ventilated garment in which the front and rear of the garment are formed with a panel of air permeable material. Such a garment is also designed principally for a static form of ventilation. It does not provide for the regulation of the size of either the ventilation air entry opening or exit opening. Thus, the airflow through the interior of the garment is unregulated and further, it is basically through the central region of the garment, passing directly from the front panel around the body in the central region to the rear panel positioned also in the central region of the garment.
The patent to Lash, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,045,243 and the patent to Langrock, U.S. Pat. No. 2,010,434 show ventilated garments in which the amount of opening of the ventilation openings may be controlled by closure elements, for example, slide fasteners. Lash shows a jacket having two horizontal slits located approximately at the solar plexis of the wearer with the slits being closeable by a slide fasteners. The garment is also provided with a rigid curved spacer to bow out the opening in order to allow circulation of air up into the chest region of the garment. On the rear of the Lash, et al garment are two horizontal slits located approximately in the same torso position at the rear of the garment, and again having slide fasteners to control the exit slits. The Lash, et al garmet suffers from the limitation that for utilization in accordance with the use contemplated for the garment of the present invention, the wearer sitting in a hunched forward position, as on a motorcycle, would actually detract from the amount of ventilation airflow through the garment since the rigid-bowed portion of the ventilation openings on the front of the garment would shield the opening from receiving the full amount of the available air striking the front of the wearer of the garment and flowing around the garment. Only if the bowed portion of Lash, et al were modified to be on the bottom of the horizontal inlet openings, which is not suggested by Lash, et al, would the ventilation openings form a scoop to assist in the collection of the air flowing against the front of the wearer of the garment. Even in that event, the airflow would then tend to be downward toward the waist of the garment and would not adequately ventilate the chest region of the wearer or properly flow through the garment around the body of the wearer to the exit openings at the rear of the garment. Moreover, even such air as will flow through the garment in the Lash, et al ventilation system, the airflow would tend to be directly to the back openings aligned generally horizontally with the front openings, leaving the ventilation of the chest, shoulders and upper back inadequate. Langrock shows a jacket which is essentially designed for static ventilation, since the ventilation openings are constructed beneath overlapping pleats of the garment designed to conceal the openings. The patent of Langrock describes the ventilation openings as being formed due to body movement of the wearer. The design of Langrock is to shield the ventilation openings under the overlapping pleats to preserve the appearance of the garment. However, the overlapping nature of the pleats would tend to impede the entry of air into the front portion of the garment. Langrock does show slide fasteners on the inside of the garment where the pleats overlap in order to seal the openings when inclement weather so dictates.
The patent to Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,451 shows a ventilated garment in which a front flap on either side of the front garment opening is selectively positionable by two slide fasteners on either side of the flap to regulate the amount of air entering the front of the garment for ventilation purposes. At the rear of the garment shown in the Brown patent, a horizontal opening at generally just above the waistline in the rear of the garment serves as a ventilation air exit, along with a wedge of material from the collar down the center line of the back of the garment constructed of air permeable material. The Brown garment suffers from the drawbacks that the front flap can be an inconvenience if it comes loose from the tucked position shown in the patent while the wearer is riding on an open vehicle such as a motorcycle at relatively high speeds or if the wearer does not tuck the flap as shown in the Brown patent. In addition, the ventilation opening in the rear of the garment which serves to provide a path for ventilation air around the upper torso and out the back of the garment is not closeable, and thus may cause the wearer discomfort during inclement weather such as rain or cold weather. Further, the lower ventilation opening of the Brown garment has no means for selectively controlling the amount of airflow through that opening as it acts as a ventilation exit.
The patent of Robinsohn, U.S. Pat. No. 2,073,711 shows a jacket in which the underarm seam is formed with a ventilation opening having a closure means, for example, a zipper. Since the zipper shown in Robinsohn is a single-acting zipper, the ventilation system of Robinsohn must be fully opened in the front in order to have any ventilation opening in the back of the underarm. This limits the ability to regulate the amount of airflow through the underarm openings, and also tends to set up a flow pattern with the ventilation opening fully opened which deflects most of the air along the arm pit of the wearer and not into the garment, or alternatively with the front fully opened and the back partially open tends to greatly billow the garment in the sleeve and shoulder area.
The above-noted deficiencies in the prior art ventilated garments have been given by way of illustration to demonstrate that prior art ventilated garments have not been entirely satisfactory, particularly for use by a wearer on an open, high-speed vehicle, for example, a motorcycle. The necessity for such a wearer to use a garment made of heavy-duty material, for example, leather or synthetic leathers for body protection has in the past been insufficiently balanced against the need for a proper ventilation system to adequately provide comfort for the wearer during periods of warm temperature and/or heavy body exertion, for example, in riding a motorcycle cross country, while at the same time providing a system which will limit the amount of billowing of the garment while the rider is moving at relatively high speeds.
Recognizing the need for an improved ventilated garment, particularly for use in riding open air high-speed vehicles, for example, motorcycles and the like, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a ventilated garment having a torso ventilation system according to the present invention.
A feature of the present invention is to provide front and back verticle ventilation openings which are formed in the material of the garment and have cooperating closure members attached to the material of the garment, with a ventilation panel beneath the opening also connected to the closure members.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide closure members, at least on the front of the garment, which are selectively openable along the length of the ventilation opening so as to be able to open the ventilation opening fully, partially from the bottom thereof, partially from the top thereof, or partially from the top and bottom thereof, leaving a portion therebetween still closed.
A further feature of the present invention is to provide a ventilation panel which is connected to the closure members by a further strip of material attached to opposite sides of the ventilation panel and to a respective closure member to act as a scoop to increase the input airflow of ventilation air into the jacket.
Yet another feature of the present invention is to provide the pocket adjacent a portion of the ventilation panel, whereby the closure members for the ventilation panel acts as a closure member for the pocket as well.
Still a further feature of the present invention is to provide the ventilation panel constructed of a relatively heavy-duty material, for example, leather or synthetic leather, like the garment itself, provided with a plruality of perforations to make the ventilation panel strong and air permeable, and to provide a comfort lining in the jacket made of a mesh-like material which is knitted to form perforations and in addition is relatively more air permeable in the body of the material between the perforations than is the material of the ventilation panel.
Yet a still further feature of the present invention is to provide the front ventilation opening extending vertically on either side of the jacket opening from generally the shoulder fully down to the waist.
The above-noted features of the invention are given by way of illustration only and are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are intended to assist those skilled in the art in better appreciating the invention disclosed in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the contribution thereof to the art. These and other features of the present invention will be better understood by reference to the detailed description of the preferred embodiment which follows in which reference is made to the following noted drawings, in the figures of which the use of like reference numerals is employed to identify like elements.